PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 1, 2011) - ETSU senior Paul O'Kane (Castledawson, Northern Ireland) tied his season best with a 3-under par 69 to lead the Bucs to a ninth place finish at the JU Invitational hosted by Mark McCumber on Tuesday afternoon.

O'Kane put together the best round of the tournament by an ETSU player with his steady final round. He finished the afternoon with a bogey-free round that included three birdies and 15 pars. O'Kane led the Bucs with a tie for 14th finish at five-over (78-74-69—221) on the Players Course at TPC Sawgrass.

The Bucs steadily improved as a team throughout the event as they improved by nine strokes after round one and eight strokes following round two. ETSU shot a final round 295 to move up the leaderboard and inside the top-ten. The Bucs finished the event with a 46-over (312-303-295—910) total in the 15-team field.

Top-ranked Florida earned the wire-to-wire victory as they were the only team to shoot under-par for the tournament. The Gators finished the event at 6-under (286-283-289—858), 25 strokes better than second place finisher North Florida, who finished at 19-over (300-286-297—883). Jacksonville State and No. 42 Liberty tied for third at 22-over, while No. 40 Clemson rounded out the top-five at 24-over.

Bank Vonvanij, the nation's top-ranked player from Florida, won the individual title at 5-under overall. Vonvanij was one of just six players in the 75-player field to finish in red numbers for the tournament. Robert Karlsson of Liberty finished just two strokes back at 3-under, while Corbin Mills of Clemson and Kevin Phelan of North Florida came in at 2-under. Evan Beck of Wake Forest and Phillip Choi of Florida were the only other players in red numbers as both finished at 1-under overall.